UA College of Medicine cuts deal for synthetic cadavers

PHOENIX — Medical education at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix just got a little more “real.”

On Wednesday morning, Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton, Dr. Stuart Flynn, dean at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix and Christopher Sakezles, president of SynDaver Labs, announced an exclusive collaboration between the medical school and the Tampa, Fla.-based company.

“It (the synthetic cadaver) has a heart that beats and blood flows. It has a liver that can make bile, so you can imagine, procedural-wise, this is profound,” Flynn explained.

SynDaver Labs also created the world’s most sophisticated synthetic human tissues and body parts, which means medical schools and laboratories can reduce or eliminate live animals, cadavers and human patients in clinical training and surgical simulation.

“Now our students learn how to start an IV on something that very much emulates a human arm, for instance, but they get to practice over and over again, which you and I wouldn’t like as a patient,” said Flynn.